Acts 26:2-14
2 “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4 “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child,from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. 6 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. 7 This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. 8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
9 “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.
12 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
Peter Foster
Shelter Covenant Church – Concord
Observation: Jesus, I am reminded of the importance and power of the ongoing movement of Your grace in my life. Our testimony, to what You have done in our lives, points to the hope we have in You.
Action: Lord, today may I look for the opportunity to share the hope I have found and You. Prepare me for that moment and may my story speak boldly to Your amazing grace.
Observation: Paul thought he was traveling with such great authority and power that the chief priests had commissioned him with. Then True Power was revealed. That True Power knocked Paul to the ground. That power changed Paul. That power still changes people today.
Action: I will look at all the plans I have today and seek for the power that God has made available to me so I can carry out his purpose and so that people may see the power of God in my life.
Observation: I see Paul living a radical life with gusto, but going the wrong way. And God, you got his attention and he turned.
Action: I am reminded of a song by Terry Clark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9–unR3iTX8 – it has a great line, “I am that leper, I am that blind man.” I lived like Paul and now have a different life. I will share my story today.
Observation: Our God took a really hard anti-Christian, and turned him into perhaps the worlds greatest evangelist. He can bring a bout really unbelievable change in any individual. Even me.
Action: I am going to watch for an opportunity to witness to someone that we might consider a hopeless case.
Observation: I am struck by how little has changed with people over time. Different people see/hear the same thing and respond in totally different ways. It took a huge kairos for Paul to repond differently to the good news of Jesus.
Action: I don’t want to wait for a huge kairos to change my response to God’s prompting. A little kairos is enough and far less jarring. Look for the little kairos’ in my daily walk and get rid of my own stubbornness before I go pointing it out in others.
little Kairos…I love it.
It is true. I wish I was able to pay more regular and minute-by-minute attention to the activity of God in my life/world.
Observation. Sounds almost obscenely rude to say, but Paul resembles more the jihad terrorists of our own day with his former persecution and vocal approval of the deaths of God’s children in Christ. Certainly not (and thankfully so) not my lasting image of Paul, thanks to the power of the Gospel–Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins–in his life.
Action: Father God, I repent of my murderous thoughts and wishes for the jihadists of our day, and rather commend them to Your love, the same love that called Paul out of darkness into your marvelous light. Let this be my daily prayer. Amen.
Observation: Whenever I read about Paul’s transition from a persecutor of Christians to a such a fervent follower of Christ, I am reminded of how God reached me at a time when I was a hardcore atheist. There was nothing that any man or woman could have done to convince me that God was real, but God showed Himself to me and spoke personally to me through a vision that He presented me with of Jesus Christ. God gave a vision to an atheist who didn’t believe in Him or in visions! Nothing short of this would have changed my mind, and being as stubborn as I am, even this almost didn’t do it for me. So often we think that certain people are unreachable with the Good News of Jesus Christ, but God can make a way where we can’t see one. I know quite a few former Muslims, including one who was studying to become an Imam, who are now Christians due to direct intervention by the Spirit of Christ!
Action: Today, I will not presume that anyone, no matter how hard their hearts toward the Gospel, are unreachable. Today I will stop and pray for the salvation of those who are opposed to Christ in our world.